Monday, March 29, 2010

Who Needs What?

Inverted W - aiiiii!!!!
The emergence of the optionless King of Spring Dana Eveland throws all sorts of wrenches into the best laid plans of rosterbators and Clarence haters. Jordan Pulitzer suggests both Rzepcyznski and Cecil might start the season in AAA to make room for Eveland. Makes sense, the Jays need to finally strike it rich with a found money deal like Eveland. But I don't agree that Cecil or Rzekljal;kf should take the fall.

Bastian makes a good point in his justification of the kids staying south.
Why start the two youngsters in the Minors? Well... why not? The Jays want to get out of the practice of rushing players to the Majors. Developing properly takes priority and this is a season more about developing than contending. When there are guys like Tallet and Eveland to buy time for younger arms, why not use them and make sure the kids are good and ready?
Of Cecil, Rzepcyznski and Brandon Morrow, who needs the most time to rest a tender shoulder? Who is the furthest behind in terms of minor league (or even major league) starts? Who, by virtue of his high-end stuff, benefits the most for polishing his act to a fine sheen?

If every one is healthy and Eveland's truly an option, let Morrow grow even healthier and even more confident in his secondary stuff. Let Morrow hone his craft until the Cecil & R Zep show they aren't ready or Eveland proves spring numbers mean nothing.

Unless there's a section of the Jays front office concerned with the optics or burying the big stud horse 3000 klicks away while trotting out unassuming lefty after unassuming/ground ball inducing lefty. An understandable concern, though the number of semi-casual Jays fans able to ID Brandon Morrow on a bet is no higher than those chagrined him starting the season in Vegas.

Photographic evidence of the coming Dana Eveland labrum searing courtesy of Colin McConnell of the Toronto Star.

11 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Pretty sure if Morrow spends 3 months at AAA we end up pushing his free agency back a year. Worth it in my eyes, but leaving him down there till the middle of July could be tough.

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  3. Isn't the whole point of trading for Morrow to keep him in AAA to work on his secondary pitches? The guy has no out pitch against left handed hitters. In his career he's absolutely dominated RH hitters (career 3.36 FIP and 4 XFIP) but couldn't get a lefty out to save his life (career 5.89 FIP and 5.53 XFIP). It makes no sense to start him in the majors if he has an option.

    Send him to AAA, have him work on a pitch he can use in the majors to get LH hitters out. Otherwise he's no better than Brandon League going forward, except League might have had a chance to get lefties out.

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  4. I never understood why morrow was seemingly handed a job right from the beginning of spring training. Seems to me if the story is has been rushed and fucked around his whole career why not take it slow with him. I think we have all suffered by trying to take a relationship to the next level too quickly. The boathouse was the right time....

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  5. I think Morrow is one of our best five pitchers. I guess I'm stubborn like AA on this one.

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  6. No real change-up it sounds like. Triple A for a while, sure. Whatever it takes to increase his chances of realizing his potential.

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  7. Yeah, 'cause we can't afford to have him figure it out with the big club, what with the pennant on the line. And he hasn't been dicked around enough in his career to date.

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  8. its not that it would hurt the team you dingleberry, its that majorleaguers are a fuckload better than AAA guys and they'll tear into a pitcher they KNOW is trying to develope his changeup Ie they'll sit on it and hit even the good ones, whereas in the minors they are working on their own shit and the best hitters he'll face are randy ruiz calibre

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  9. @ Anon 8:46 PM: Randy Ruiz takes offense to your comment.

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  10. Good luck sitting on a pitch that gets thrown 10% - 15% of the time. Major league hitters are smarter than anon 8:46.

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